Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke Are The Next Great Cowboy Love Match

With what feels like all of our favorite TV shows ending and the SAG-AFTRA strike shifting release dates back, the big question is: What are we going to watch? Let me introduce you, dear reader, to the world of short films. Today is a perfect time to make this introduction, because we have a star-studded hitter on our hands. Coming in at just 30 minutes, Strange Way of Life—directed by Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar—will star Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke as gay cowboys who reunite after 25 years to solve a murder.

“It could be like my answer to Brokeback Mountain," Almodóvar told IndieWire, at the Cannes Film Festival premiere earlier this summer. The director famously contemplated and turned down Brokeback before it went to Ang Lee. Now, he feels like he has the freedom to make the gay western he once envisioned before. "I think Ang Lee made a wonderful movie, but I never believed that they would give me complete freedom and independence to make what I wanted," Almodóvar said. “Nobody told me that — they said, You can do whatever you want, but I knew that there was a limitation."

Recently, Pascal starred in HBO's The Last of Us, which featured a tender and much-celebrated apocalyptic romance between two male characters played by Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett. Now, Pascal will get his chance. "Years ago you asked me what two men could do living together on a ranch," he tells Hawke's character. "I’ll answer you now." Strange Way of Life was also filmed in the same location as the classic Italian spaghetti western The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. From the trailer, it seems as if the short film is making a conscious homage to famous westerns of the past.

In a rare move, Deadline announced that Strange Way of Life will debut in select theaters in New York City and Los Angeles starting on October 4, with a wide release planned for October 20. It'll be accompanied by Almodóvar's 2020 short film, The Human Voice, starring Tilda Swinton. For now, you can check out the trailer below.

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